The Impact of Occupational Safety, Health Legislations and Policies on the Health of Steel Reinforcement Workers in Building Construction Sites, Kenya Case Study of Nairobi County, Kenya
Keywords:
Impact of Occupational Safety, Health Legislations, Policies and the Health of Steel Reinforcement Workers.Abstract
Steel reinforcement work in building construction sites is an important contributor to the building construction industry overall social and economic development of the world. Steel reinforcement work has continually impacted negatively on the health of workers in building construction sites thus raising stakeholders concern. This study investigates the impact of occupational safety, health legislations and policies on the health of steel reinforcement workers in building construction sites. The objective of the investigation was to establish how the impact of occupational safety, health legislations and policies on the health of steel reinforcement workers in building construction sites. The study was premised on the hypotheses that there was no statistically significant relationship between the management of occupational safety, health legislation and policies, and the health of workers of steel reinforcement works in building construction sites. Descriptive cross-sectional method was used for data collection. Testing for reliability of data collection instrument was done by use of Cronbach alpha formula. Data analysis and hypothesis testing were by descriptive and inferential statistical methods. Data presentation was in frequencies, tables, charts, and graphs. The main results of the investigation were that management of occupational safety, health legislation and policies had impact on the health of workers of steel reinforcement works in building construction sites. From descriptive results it indicates that more than 77 % of the respondents were of the opinion that management of occupational safety, health legislation and policies had impact on the health of workers of steel reinforcement works in building construction sites. While from inferential analysis the computation yielded a Pearson correlation coefficient (r) had a positive value of 0.29 which was greater than 0.2 but not more than 0.4, indicative of a moderate positive linear correlation between OSH legislation and policies and workers’ health. The Sig. (2-tailed) or p value obtained was 0.001 which is less than 0.05 and very close to 0, implying that there was a statistically significant correlation between OSH legislation and policies and workers’ health. This implies that increases or decreases in effectiveness of OSH legislation and policies directly relates to increases or decreases in workers’ health in building construction sites. This implies that the existing management system for protection and occupational safety, health legislation and policies, and the health of workers in building construction sites in Nairobi County, Kenya is a problem. Review of this system in response to emerging building and construction sector specific needs was therefore recommended.
Keywords: Impact of Occupational Safety, Health Legislations, Policies and the Health of Steel Reinforcement Workers.
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